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The New Members Exhibition is on display at the

NAWA Gallery
315 West 39th St. Suite 508
New York, NY 10018

November 8 – December 4, 2018

On November 15, 2018 I was proud to be inducted into the National Association of Woment Artists, NAWA. I had submitted my portfolio, resume/CV, bio & artist’s statement for jurying into this historical organization that was founded in 1889 with a mission to create a greater opportunity for professional women artists in a male-dominated art world. Sadly, this situation still exists to this day. We are still in need of a gathering of strong and resiliant women to promote and support each other and ourselves.

The induction ceremony was held at the Rubin Museum on 17th St. in Manhattan New York City. Attending artists spoke about their work with passion.

Mary Ahern speaking about her art at the Rubin Museum Induction Ceremony of the National Associaton of Women Artists, NAWA.

Later that same day the Opening Reception of the New Members Show was held at the gallery of the NAWA on 39th St in NYC. The rooms were crowded with artists and guests. The artists had the opportunity to explain the ideas and inspiration behind their work on display.

Mary Ahern speaking at the opening reception for the New Members Show at the NAWA gallery in NYC. Mary Ahern is speaking about her work on display behind her, “Candy Wind Hibiscus”, a 20×20″ GW, Oil on canvas. $1,950.

Selecting art to buy online can be daunting but it doesn’t have to be. In my Art Shop I’ve added a few features to help you take the guesswork out of what art and what size will work in your space and what will not. It’s called Live Preview AR (for Augmented Reality.)

Using your own mobile device you can select a print from any of my collections of landscapes, floral portraits, still lifes and designer prints and view it through your on-board camera projected onto your wall space. You can resize the image of the print until you find that perfect sweet spot that will work for you in your own particular setting.

You can easily select different prints to view. Will a landscape style work or perhaps a square print? Choose prints to view either by clicking directly on their image in the category library or just press the left or right arrow to view the next in line. All the available sizes for each print are quickly and easily seen by you in the pull down menu right at your fingertips.

To exit Augmented Reality is easy and brings you right to the ordering page. You have an array of options in which to choose. What surface do you want for your print? Canvas, fine art paper, aluminum or acrylic? Once you decide the size and treatment you might consider a frame or matting depending on your choice of materials.

Now that your selection is made just click to see your shopping cart and the rest is a breeze. The hardest part will be anticipating the arrival of your very own piece of Art, custom chosen by you for your own special place. Enjoy!

Art in the Park

Art, Music, Poetry and Dance Festival

A July summer event, featuring music, dance, poetry and over 30 artists displaying and selling their original work. Art show begins at 10am and festivities begin at 12pm. Free admission and a fun day for the entire family. Hours are 10am to 5pm.

Join us for another exciting event in the picturesque Village of Northport, NY. This multi-disciplinary annual event is held in the Village Park at the foot of main street surrounded by the lush tableau of water, boats, trees, playgrounds and the old time Village feel of another, calmer and genteel era.

My studio was overflowing as I created new work for my show at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum

Mary Ahern brought her award-winning style of floral and garden inspired art to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum from May 17 through June 17, 2018. Three galleries of her floral portraits were on display at the historic Manor House at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River NY.

Mary Ahern, known for her brilliant floral and garden paintings was showing her latest large-scale flower portraits. As a passionate gardener who is inspired by the gardens she designed and tends surrounding her own studio, these flowers represent to her a microcosm of the universe. The large scale of these individual portraits asks questions beyond the canvas.

What is the purpose for such magnificence in nature? What is the reason for such color, such form, such diversity? What is their relationship to the communities in which they belong, their relationships with other plants and species that sustain them, invade them and nourish them. What of their lifecycle of birth, growth, senescence and rebirth? As humans, what can we learn from their seemingly simple existence?

Initially we see with our eyes. We name it, identify it and classify it. But we also have a duality of vision which allows us to contemplate with an inner vision. This art invites both the external and internal views.

The only way for me to efficiently prepare for any upcoming Lecture or Art Show exhibition is to create a checklist of items I need to complete to make a successful event. These contain Marketing items, preparing to show the Art, inventory items for sale & display and the advance staging & rehearsal.

For my latest upcoming Art Lecture at the Long Island Horticultural Society, I worked from this list if items. I really enjoy drawing lines through each task as I complete it so I can move on to the next.

The list is fluid & with each event I have to make adjustments but this is a fairly good outline to begin with.

I finally bit the bullet and bought a new car to replace my 1996 Nissan Pathfinder with 200,010 miles on it. I called her my gardening car since I could pack so many plants in her. She also carried my Art to many, many Art Festivals over the years. By giving her up I felt almost the same sense of mourning as I did when I lost 4 trees in my woodland garden to Hurricane Sandy. This car had carried my Art and me safely throughout six states worth of Art Festivals

1996 Nissan Pathfinder pulling my trailer filled with Art to one of many Art Festivals

But it was time. The rust, the rattles, the pervading sense of being stranded somewhere if the trusty ‘ole car decided to bite the bullet. It was very hard to find the right replacement vehicle. I took tape measuring to all the dealerships in search of the perfect match. To my dismay I discovered that all the SUV’s have been pumped up on steroids since I was last in the market. Too many rows of seats and driving around in a McMansion didn’t hold appeal for me.

After much searching I finally choose a RAV4 by Toyota. It fit the dimensions of my large paintings but wasn’t too over sized for day to day driving. So I’ve downsized slightly in order to have a fully flat surface for transporting plants & Art. The back seat is a bench style while most of the larger ones have bucket style seats.

Oh, and I was able to get it in green. Not a color offered very frequently anymore. One of the things that was a big pleasant surprise since I hadn’t had a new car in decades, was all the new technology built into cars nowadays. The new toys helped with the sorrowful transition I felt on abandoning my old friend.

Here is a video which I originally created in July of 2013 of how I prepare prints for display and sale at outdoor art festivals .

I took these video clips in my studio as I prepared for the Northport Art in the Park hosted by the Northport Arts Coalition.

I used a Canon Power Shot SD3500 IS Digital ELPH, holding it in one hand and demonstrating with the other. I used the audio from the camera which is muffled at times since I put my finger over the microphone. I originally started with 18 minutes of video clips and brought it down to about 4:15.

I edited in iMovie with the end credits created in Photoshop.

Fun little project which I wish I’d given myself more time to perfect but there are always choices to be made. Time being the one thing I can’t seem to stretch.

I happily took the Long Island Railroad into Penn Station to then walk to Chelsea in NYC from my perch in Northport Long Island. This venture, on a cold winter day, was to gather in the brilliant colors and environments of the watercolor paintings created by the Artist, Joseph Raffael. These large-scale works envelop you into the tropical gardens and seaside shells which are the models and subjects of his work.

Some feature strongly defined focal points while other subjects are diffused, allowing you to meander through the tangles of flowers, leaves and stems. Koi provide the pivotal “Turning Point” between the water and air while leaving ripples which you know will be gone again in moments. Tibetan prayer flags flutter in the breeze sharing the brilliance of Koi colors. Time, movement and transience are significant subjects in these meditative paintings.

“Light Blue Iris in the Garden”I grew these delightful light blue Iris germanica in my garden one year but they sadly haven’t come back with such beauty since. Iris borers and not enough sun perhaps. I solve this ephemeral behavior by painting the flowers from my garden. No pesticides, no fungicides, no weeding, no deadheading. They are in perfect condition all year round.
http://maryahernartist.com/galleries/mixed-media

“Lilies in the Garden”As a gardener and an Artist I’ve been able to combine both of these passions.Though my garden has been featured on various Garden Tours, I guarantee that it doesn’t look as good as the fantasy garden in this painting.

“Siberian Iris Trio”A small patch of these Siberian Irises were in the garden when I bought my home in 1989. They are short lived during the season but very long lived over the years.

“Daylilies and Rudbeckia”
I paired this combination of flowers on my canvas for the their jovial and robust colors. Noticing their form, color and bloom time I transplanted them to create a seasonal vignette in my late summer garden as well.

“Conversation Piece Azalea”These multi-colored flowers all bloom on the same shrub in my garden collection. Another nice thing about this cultivar is that it blooms a bit later than other Azaleas, thereby extended the colorful season.

MY ART BLOG

I wrote an article on my Art Blog recently describing how subconsciously I was influenced by the famous Matisse painting, “The Dance.”

Studying Art History for decades seeps into your creative mind and emerges in ways that you don’t expect. Though I majored in Art in college, it’s the years of continuing pursuit that really make the subtle and not so subtle differences in an Artist’s work.

QUOTATIONA garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.

– Gertrude Jekyll – Gardener, Designer, Writer 1893-1932

MY ARTIST STATEMENT
My Art is driven by the pursuit of multiple passions. In my garden I grow the delicate & ephemeral models which are the subjects of my paintings. I transform them through a complex series of digital technologies and traditional mediums.

I have a degree in horticulture, a degree in Fine Arts and my entire career has been spent in Digital Imaging technologies. These are the tools I use to create my Art.

Creating and reinventing my gardens larger than life size demonstrates the profound importance they play in my own personal centering.

Daylilies and Rudbeckia, a Mixed Media painting by the Artist, Mary Ahern.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mary Ahern Invited To Exhibit Her Art by the Huntington Arts Council

Northport, NY. – February 24, 2013

Mary Ahern, the Northport Garden Artist, has been invited by the Huntington Arts Council to display her Mixed Media paintings in the show titled, “Living Color”. These bold & bright, large-scale paintings are interpretations of the gardens she tends surrounding her studio on Long Island.

Mary Ahern, who has shown her work and been collected extensively on Long Island and many surrounding States, is pleased to have been invited by the Huntington Arts Council to participate in the “Living Color” show. Ahern states, “The title of this show perfectly describes my own large colorful floral portraits. It is a perfect fit.”

The Huntington Arts Council show will be held in the Art-trium in Melville, Long Island, NY. This spacious setting is ideal for Ahern’s large-scale powerful statements.

The show will be held at the Art-rium Gallery at 25 Melville Park Rd., Melville NY. Her Fine Art will be on view from March 26 – June 17, 2013.

Meet the Artist at the opening reception, which will be held on Friday, April 5, 2013 from 5:30-7pm.

The 57th Annual Art League of LI Member’s Exhibition is

November 11 through November 25, 2012
11-4pm each day

The Art League is located at 107 East Deer Park Rd. in Dix Hills NY 11746

Tom Stacey is the Coordinator of the show and can be reached at 631-462-5400

The ALLI website is www.artileagueli.org

The piece that I’ve submitted for the show is “Passion Flowers with Bamboo”.

“Passion Flowers with Bamboo” a Mixed Media Painting by the Artist, Mary Ahern

This painting is a Mixed Media piece created using digital and acrylic painting. The finished work is a 20×24″ gallery wrapped canvas with a 1/5″ depth. The purchase price is $549.

The original models for this work were some Passifloracaerulea commonly known as Blue Passion Flower. I grew them in my deck planters where they entwined themselves on a craftsman style trellis on the sunny outside wall of my home.

The bamboo is also from my garden and is Fargesia robusta ‘Green Screen’. It is a clump forming bamboo and is said to reach a height of 12-15 ‘ but it hasn’t done so in my garden so far. I have it planted on a berm just behind a Japanese maple. For a further description of this Fargesia check out www.bamboogarden.com.

This year I’ve donated my White Rose Montage to this worthy fund-raiser.

I designed this long 8″ x 39″ montage for all the folks who tell me they can’t buy my work since they don’t have anymore wall space. This piece fits nicely between windows or as an accent piece at the edge of a wall. It has 5 individual digital paintings of roses for all those rosarian collectors out there.

The holidays are coming and you can do two nice things for the price of one. Bid on this piece to help support the Huntington Arts Council and then give it as a gift to one of your special friends.

Curating an Art Show takes many steps and stages. The process begins with the organization sponsoring the event. They are responsible for setting the dates and timetables of the show, the selection of Artists and in this case, establishing and maintaining a cooperative working relationship with the owners of the hosting venue.

The organization that is sponsoring the Art Show decides if they are hosting a One-Person Art Show or a Group Exhibit and where the venue will be held. This information is included in their prospectus.

For the Art Show I’m having from August 28 through October 9th, 2012, I downloaded the prospectus from the Northport Arts Coalition (aka NAC) website here. Most organizations now offer their applications & information online.

In this case, I applied for a One-Person Show to be held over a 6-7 week period at the Wine Cellar on Main in downtown Northport NY. I was notified of my acceptance and given about a one-month lead time to prepare for the showing.

Normally the lead time for an opportunity for a large show like this is quite a bit longer but I was pleased with the opportunity to show my work so I quickly accepted their offer.

A view of my studio while staging for the Art Show

Depending on the organization the curating of the actual show is done either by a designated person within that group or the individual Artists whom they’ve selected for a show.

I usually have various paintings of mine in multiple group shows over a wide variety of time slots & locations so I keep comprehensive records of where my Art Work is allocated at any given time & where the work is scheduled to be shown.

I also know what work is in the process of being created & when the work will be available for the next showing.

Curating is many things. These include finding the venues, selecting the Artists, designing the show itself and creating and executing the marketing campaign.

So I applied and was accepted for a one-person Fine Art Show at the new Wine Cellar on Main in Northport NY from August 28 through October 8th, 2012. The acceptance email was the fun part & then the stress factor hit me within moments.

Yikes. I’m a curator now.

What paintings would I show? How many pieces of Art? What size paintings would look right. How would I stage the show hanging? And since it was such short notice, (one-month) how quickly could I pull this whole show together efficiently & still enjoy life?

Here’s what I did.

Site survey of the Wine Cellar on Main with my friend Greg Oleanik’s show in place.

Side wall of Greg Oleanik’s show at the Wine Cellar on Main

I took my point & shoot camera, pencil, paper & a sturdy metal measuring tape & scouted out the available show space. Luckily, my friend Greg Oleanik currently had a show hanging there so I was able to take snapshots of all his work hanging in place.

Mock-up of what size paintings I will need for my upcoming Art Show

Side wall mock-up for my Art Show planning

I measured the height & widths of all the available spaces within the room, keeping them sequentially numbered along with photos of each space. I spoke with the proprietor, Lindsay Ostrander & we discussed the fact that she had installed a hanging system with rails & rods so that I wouldn’t need to put nails in her walls. This info I took back to my studio & headed for the computer.

I imported the photos into Photoshop. I created a panorama of the interior hanging space with photos of Greg’s show. Then I made a mock-up of the walls & created placeholders for the different sizes of my own Artwork since I know what sizes of Art I generally work in.

With this in place I was able to count how many and what sizes of paintings I would need to have available to put into the Art Show.

I felt calmer already. Next step was planning on how much creating was ahead of me & what I could possibly hope to accomplish in such a short span of time while also leaving me time to publicize the show. I wanted to make sure I left enough time to share the news about the show with family, friends, and with all my past, present & future customers.

NAC’s ‘Art in the Park’ set for July 14, 2012

The Observer article written by Elise Pearlman announcing the Northport Art in the Park featuring the Artist, Mary Ahern.

There’ll be art, music, dance, poetry and plenty of it when the Northport Arts Coalition hosts their ‘Saturday Art in the Park’ Festival on July 14 from 10am to 5pm. The free family-friendly extravaganza takes place in Northport Village Park rain or shine and all are welcome to attend.

This joyous celebration of the arts in all their diversity has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception, said NAC community liaison Lauren Paige who is overseeing the event.

The day promises to be a veritable paradise for art lovers. According to Ms. Paige, 25 artists will be displaying fine art, photographs, jewelry, crafts, books and more, and some are coming from across the tri-state area.

“I enjoy hosting artists from Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey as well as local artists who have been coming back year after year,” Ms. Paige said.

Longtime Asharoken resident and artist Marge Kawaller is coordinating the art portion of the festival. She said that NAC is extraordinarily proud of the line-up.

Northport resident Mary Ahern will exhibit her large-scale fine art digital mixed media paintings which resonate with eye-catching detail. Inspired by her own lush garden, Ms. Ahern showcases the colorful pageantry of flowers as well as fruit. Her oversized portraits of seashells enable viewers to “enjoy the feel of the seashore all year long,” Elise Pearlman.